1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wind instrument with electronic tubing length control, which controls a musical tone to be generated by a wind instrument using electronic delay lines.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional wind instruments are designed to change the pitch of a musical tone by changing the effective length of a straight pipe (cylindrical pipe) portion by a mechanical means. For example, the effective length of the straight pipe portion is changed by a valve system consisting of a plurality of piston cylinders in brasses such as a trumpet, a horn, a bass, or the like, by a slide pipe mechanism in brasses such as a trombone, or by a key mechanism for opening/closing a large number of tone holes in woodwinds.
However, wind instruments which change a pitch by mechanical means suffer a problem of difficult and troublesome working and adjustment of the mechanical means itself. For example, in the above-mentioned valve system, if the clearance between a piston and a cylinder or the clearance between a slide inner pipe and an outer pipe is large, a so-called "tone omission" phenomenon occurs, resulting in poor performance response. On the other hand, if the clearance is small, a piston or the like cannot be smoothly moved in response to a quick movement. For these reasons, the clearance must always be maintained to be about 20 to 50 .mu.m. Since the piston and the cylinder always rub against each other, a high-performance material free from a wear or surface treatment is required. Furthermore, when an excessive force acts on, e.g., the piston, this portion is bent and becomes inoperative, thus easily causing failures.
As a conventional apparatus for generating musical tones, an electronic musical instrument using electronic delay lines which simulate musical tones generated by an acoustic musical instrument such as a wind instrument is known. Many such electronic musical instruments have been proposed in various developed forms. Of these electronic musical instruments, an electronic wind instrument converts a change in pressure of, e.g., an exhalation of a man into an electrical signal, and supplies the electrical signal to electronic delay lines. The electronic delay lines comprise, e.g., a nonlinear circuit for roughly approximating nonlinear characteristics generated in a reed. The electrical signal is delayed by a predetermined period of time via the electronic delay lines, and the delayed electrical signal is amplified. The amplified signal is supplied to a loudspeaker to be converted into an actual sound.
However, in the above-mentioned conventional electronic wind instrument, a player merely gives an input as an unilateral, initial condition free from physical feedback from the instrument. Therefore, the conventional electronic wind instrument cannot allow unification in emotion between the player and the instrument, and allows merely control inputs by the player.